A Research Report of Small/Rural School Districts in Nebraska Compared to School Districts of Similiar Size Nationwide.

Barker, Bruce O.; Muse, Ivan D.

Information on 44 small/rural K-12 Nebraska school districts (900 students or fewer) is compared to data from 642 similar districts nationwide, using material gathered during 1982-83. Of the nation's 15,601 public school districts, 4,125 (26.4%) were identified as qualifying for the survey; 76.4% (249 districts, enrolling 76,516 students) of Nebraska's 334 districts qualified. A questionnaire mailed to superintendents of 50 randomly-selected Nebraska districts and 816 randomly-selected districts nationwide achieved respective response rates of 88% and 78.7%. A 3-page table compares Nebraska and national data in sections on the district, superintendent, teachers, student performance, and school programs. For example, student performance is compared in terms of mean numbers of graduating seniors (Nebraska: 29, national: 34.5); percent of graduating seniors recognized as National Merit Exam finalists (0.7%, 1%); percent of graduating seniors achieving scores of 25 or above on the American College Test (10%, 7.5%); percent of graduating seniors achieving scores of 1100 or above on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (1.8%, 2.6%); percent of graduating seniors going on to college (40.6%, 38.6%); and percent of graduating seniors going to technical school (22.8%, 14.1%). (MH)